Department of Transportation November 20, 2024 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

NHTSA received a request to extend the comment period for the September 19, 2024, Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) proposing a new Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) to ensure passenger vehicles are designed to mitigate the risk of serious to fatal injury in pedestrian crashes. The NPRM is based on Global Technical Regulation (GTR) No. 9 on pedestrian safety, with focused enhancements to address safety problems. The comment period for the NPRM was scheduled to end on November 18, 2024. NHTSA is extending the comment period for the NPRM by 30 days.

These special conditions are issued for the Pratt and Whitney Canada (P&WC) Model PW220A engine. This engine will have a novel or unusual design feature when compared to the state of technology envisioned in the airworthiness standards for aircraft engines. This design feature is a 30-minute all engine operating (AEO) power rating. This rating will be used for hovering at increased power for search and rescue missions. The applicable airworthiness regulations do not contain adequate or appropriate safety standards for this design feature. These special conditions contain the additional safety standards that the Administrator considers necessary to establish a level of safety equivalent to that established by the existing airworthiness standards.

FMCSA announces its final decision to grant an exemption renewal requested by Groendyke Transport, Inc. (Groendyke) to allow the use of an amber brake-activated pulsating lamp on the rear of its trailers in addition to the steady-burning brake lamps required by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (FMCSR). FMCSA concludes that renewing the exemption, subject to the terms and conditions set forth below, is likely to achieve a level of safety equivalent to or greater than the level of safety that would be achieved absent the exemption.

FMCSA proposes amendments to its property broker rules in response to petitions for rulemaking from the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA) and the Small Business in Transportation Coalition (SBTC). Under current regulations, the parties to a brokered freight transaction have a right to review the broker's record of the transaction, which stakeholders often refer to as "broker transparency." Contracts between brokers and motor carriers frequently contain waivers of this right. OOIDA requested that FMCSA promulgate a requirement that property brokers provide an electronic copy of each transaction record automatically within 48 hours after the contractual service has been completed, and explicitly prohibit brokers from including any provision in their contracts that requires a motor carrier to waive its rights to access the transaction records. SBTC requested that FMCSA prohibit brokers of property from coercing or requiring parties to brokers' transactions to waive their right to review the record of the transaction as a condition for doing business and prohibit the use of clause(s) exempting the broker from having to comply with this transparency requirement. Though the proposed rule is responsive to the petitions in reinforcing the broker transparency requirement, the proposed provisions differ from those requested by OOIDA and SBTC. The proposed rule would revise the regulatory text to make clear that brokers have a regulatory obligation to provide transaction records to the transacting parties on request. The proposal would also make changes to the format and content of the records.

Notice is being given that the FAA is considering a request from the City of Melbourne to release 99.575 (+/-) acres at the Melbourne Orlando International Airport, Melbourne, FL from the conditions, reservations, and restrictions as contained in a Quitclaim Deed agreement between the FAA and the City of Melbourne, dated April 20, 1948. The release of property will allow the City of Melbourne to dispose of the property for non-aeronautical purposes.

This notification announces a limited, conditional policy for prioritizing returned operations at Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) due to a construction-related runway closure at EWR for purposes of establishing a carrier's operational baseline in the next corresponding scheduling seasons. A "returned operation" is any planned operation included in the initially approved schedules that a carrier moved or will not operate due to the effort to reach the targeted reduced schedule throughout the construction period at EWR. In addition, the FAA will provide similar limited, conditional relief at Chicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD), Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), and San Francisco International Airport (SFO) under the FAA's Level 2 schedule facilitation process as well as a limited, conditional waiver of minimum usage requirements at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA), for impacted flights between EWR and the listed airports.